Florida Adventure, Part 2

Wednesday morning, bright and early, we drove over to Disney World (that is, after fueling up sufficiently at McDonald's and the grocery store). Isaac had been doing an in-depth study of our Disney World Touring Book for a whole year, so following in his father's tour guide footsteps, he knew just where to have us begin our day.

First stop was the Buzz Lightyear ride! The boys love this ride because they get to shoot little red, laser beams at targets as they go, in order to accumulate points. One of their favorites, for sure.

Next stop, and another one of their favorites, is the race-car driving ride. If there wasn't a line, I'm sure we would have done it five or six times in a row!

What a great race!

Here, Colby, Zane, and Grandma Balyo are getting ready to ride the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It is dark inside of this ride, with a thick mist at one point, a small waterfall, and lots of animatronics. It was NOT Colby's favorite.

We sure seem to have eaten a lot of ice-cream in Florida! :)

Ok, somewhere around this time, I was looking in a little shop that was selling all kinds of unique little instruments from different countries. Loved them! Shakers and rattles and rainsticks and drums...just the kind of thing that would have been really fun to use in our homeschool music class. So, I brought the boys over and this is what followed:
"Did you guys see all of these instruments? Look, bongos! Ooh, and look at these cool shakers! Look how you have to kind of flip it to make the music. Hey, wow, that looks like a bug in there. Is that a...Aaah, there's a cockroach in the shaker (shiver, shiver, shiver)!! Aaah, gross! Let's move on!" So, needless to say, the kids in homeschool music class will not be using a bunch of instruments from different countries, this spring! :)

This was by and far THE longest line that we stood in at Disney Word. We even had to wait through Tigger and Pooh's "honey break." But, the boys didn't want to leave the line and I'm glad, because it was sooo worth it. I really wish that we would have gotten Ian and Colby's reaction to Pooh and Tigger on Video. Colby had Tigger bouncing with him and Ian ran back for one more big hug.

Lots of love for Pooh and Tigger!

Daddy and Zane, being silly outside of Mickey and Minnie's houses.

A fun, but exhausting couple of days at Sea World and Disney World! Good-bye, Orlando! We sure have had fun! Now, to head South...

Now, just a helpful hint to anyone taking 4 young boys to Sea World and Disney World:
Make sure you take Sam's Club size bags of pretzel rods (because they'll probably each eat about 20- including the one who is not yet even two!). And, make sure you pack enough peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to feed a football team (because they'll probably each eat about six... and then ask what else is on the menu!). :)

Florida Adventure, Part 1

Florida!

Wonderful...sunny...rollerblade-friendly...rubber-nosed dolphins...lemons and oranges...I-can-hardly-stand-feeding-them-but-I-just-want-to-anyway-rays...ice-cream...looking for gators...it's-so-fun-to-meet-people...golf carts...HG-TV and morning cartoons...hot tubs and swimming pools...shells and mystery beach objects...lots of food...and naps!

One of the things that the boys were looking forward to the most was driving the golf cart! I don't think I could even put a guess on how many times Isaac talked about driving the golf cart since he' found out we were going to go to Florida in January.
You probably can't tell from this picture, but his excitement and nervousness is basically bursting out of his seams, here. And wow, I will never forget that first ride I had with Isaac driving (and I'm pretty sure Grandpa and Isaac won't either) He didn't quite make the 90 degree turn and almost put us into the lake! :) But, he was a trooper and got right back up on that horse (I did too, but I'll tell you what...my legs were shaking, terribly!!! ).
Ian's excitement is a little more visible, here (as are his untied shoes). He wasn't quite ready to tackle the whole neighborhood (and we weren't quite ready for any more near-lake experiences), but he sure loved driving around the cul-de-sac.

The first 2 days in Florida were chilly, but over the next few days, it started to warm up. On Tuesday morning, we drove up to Orlando so that we could go to wonderful, wonderful Sea World and Disney World the next day.
Sea World is just wonderful! What a privilege to be able to touch such smart, docile water mammals. God's creativity is so obvious when you are looking at all of these amazing water creatures.
I highly recommend studying the animals before visiting them, though. We've been using a fantastic science curriculum for elementary students, put out by Apologia, and the boys have learned so much. I really think they (and I) have been able to appreciate things so much more than if we'd gone with no scientific background.
Posing with a giant manatee.
Posing pinnipeds (flipper-feet). The boys were so excited when they saw that the name of the Seal and Sea Lion show had a ship that was called The Pinniped.
The Dolphin show is an absolute must-see!
I could watch this show over and over and over again and not grow tired of it, nor lose my amazement over the artistic, physical muscle as well as patience, that it takes from both the humans and animals to learn and perform all of the sequences.
You just don't want to blink your eyes...
...lest you miss something else spectacular!
A little break of ice-cream (The adults had wonderful soft-serve cones with hot chocolate fudge in the center- yummy!), a little playing on the climbing net at the playground, a few rides on both the Shamu rollercoaster and the Sea Carousel...and we are off to Shamu's show.
We almost didn't get to see the Shamu show because apparantly the orcas weren't interested in performing that night. But, Yay, they were eventually convinced somehow to do their show... and we were extremely grateful! What a wonderful experience!

May You Get Lots of Sleep in the New Year!

The boys tried so hard to stay up to welcome 2010, but they started dropping off, one by one...

First, Colby snuggled up in Isaac's bed and fell asleep with the lights on...

Then, Ian fell asleep in his tried and true, treefrog method...

And finally, after a noble battle, Isaac gave in to sleep as well.

Cute, little muffins couldn't even wake up for a Happy New year greeting!